Open-Ended Technological Evolution: The Co-Evolution of Invention and Cognitive Technologies.

The cumulative evolution of technology has proven central to our species' ecological success, allowing for cultural rather than biological adaptation to environmental challenges. While cumulative improvement explains how specific technological traditions can get increasingly better at solving pre-existing adaptive problems, it remains fundamentally an optimization process, one which halts when an optimal solution is found. Yet, humans are also capable of open-ended or evolvable technological change, that is, we have the capacity for generating novel and useful technological solutions for an ever-expanding set of increasingly complex problems.

Technical performance analyses in elite Paralympic swimming using wearable technology: two case studies.

We present two case studies that make use of wearable technology to provide performance indicators on optimal swim stroke techniques in breaststroke (case 1) and freestyle (case 2). In the first case study, we present and use a novel metric, the velocity variation score, to maximise breaststroke technical performance for an athlete with Achondroplasia Dwarfism, by comparing their normal technique to two alternates, focused on 1) fast arm sculling and 2) high stroke rate (HSR). We observed lower velocity variation scores using the adapted breaststroke techniques ( < 0.

Cultural evolution: A review of theoretical challenges.

The rapid growth of cultural evolutionary science, its expansion into numerous fields, its use of diverse methods, and several conceptual problems have outpaced corollary developments in theory and philosophy of science. This has led to concern, exemplified in results from a recent survey conducted with members of the Cultural Evolution Society, that the field lacks 'knowledge synthesis', is poorly supported by 'theory', has an ambiguous relation to biological evolution and uses key terms (e.g.

Factors influencing the effects of policies and interventions to promote the appropriate use of medicines in high-income countries: A rapid realist review.

Background: The appropriate use of medicines has long been recognized as a fundamental component of medicine policies. We aimed to extract lessons from published research on how policy contexts and mechanisms can affect the outcomes of national- or health-system level interventions to promote appropriate medicine use (defined as an increase in underutilized medications or decrease in inappropriate medication use).

Methods: We conducted a rapid realist review of published evidence concerning system-level policies to promote the appropriate use of medicines in high-income countries with universal prescription drug coverage.

Validation of Automatically Quantified Swim Stroke Mechanics Using an Inertial Measurement Unit in Paralympic Athletes.

Biomechanics and training load monitoring are important for performance evaluation and injury prevention in elite swimming. Monitoring of performance and swim stroke parameters is possible with inertial measurement units (IMU) but has not been validated in para-swimmers. The purpose of this study was to validate a single IMU-based system to accurately estimate pool-swam lap time, stroke count (SC), stroke duration, instantaneous stroke rate (ISR), and distance per stroke (DPS).

Flexible Cultural Learning Through Action Coordination.

The cultural transmission of technical know-how has proven vital to the success of our species. The broad diversity of learning contexts and social configurations, as well as the various kinds of coordinated interactions they involve, speaks to our capacity to flexibly adapt to and succeed in transmitting vital knowledge in various learning contexts. Although often recognized by ethnographers, the flexibility of cultural learning has so far received little attention in terms of cognitive mechanisms.

Fidelity, stances, and explaining cultural stability.

The bifocal stance theory posits two stances - the ritual and the instrumental - each a learning strategy with different fidelity outcomes. These differences in turn have long-term consequences for cultural stability. Yet we suggest the key concept of "fidelity" is insufficiently explicated.

Culture without copying or selection.

Unlabelled: Typical examples of cultural phenomena all exhibit a degree of similarity across time and space at the level of the population. As such, a fundamental question for any science of culture is, what ensures this stability in the first place? Here we focus on the evolutionary and stabilising role of 'convergent transformation', in which one item causes the production of another item whose form tends to deviate from the original in a directed, non-random way. We present a series of stochastic models of cultural evolution investigating its effects.

Evaluating the relative contributions of copying and reconstruction processes in cultural transmission episodes.

The ability to transmit information between individuals through social learning is a foundational component of cultural evolution. However, how this transmission occurs is still debated. On the one hand, the copying account draws parallels with biological mechanisms for genetic inheritance, arguing that learners copy what they observe and novel variations occur through random copying errors.

Instantaneous velocity estimation for the four swimming strokes using a 3-axis accelerometer: Validation on paralympic athletes.

Inertial measurement unit systems (IMU) are increasingly used in sports. However, no algorithm evaluating the instantaneous swimming velocity has been validated on the four swimming strokes, or on dive start. Our objective is to develop and validate a new method to measure instantaneous swimming velocity on athletes presenting various musculoskeletal and neurological impairments and swimming one of the four swimming strokes.

Using Portable Force Plates to Assess Vertical Jump Performance: A Metrological Appraisal.

The purpose of this study was to verify the metrological properties of portable force plates that are used to assess countermovement jump performance. While 88 participants (38 males, 50 females) were included in the agreement analyses, 84 participants (37 males and 47 females) completed the reliability part of the study. This randomized crossover design suggests that portable force plates could be used interchangeably with a reference system.

Surviving niche busters: Main strategies employed by Canadian private insurers facing the arrival of high cost specialty drugs.

The Canadian patchwork system of prescription drug coverage and the employer sponsored private health benefits group plans appear vulnerable to cost growth due to insufficient balance of power between fragmented public and private buyers, and pharmaceutical manufacturers. The emergence of "bad" insurance risks caused by new and very expensive treatments featuring high cost specialty medicines - also known as niche buster drugs - exposes this vulnerability. This study fills a gap in knowledge by seeking to better understanding how Canadian private insurers face the arrival of specialty pharmaceuticals.

Cumulative culture in the laboratory: methodological and theoretical challenges.

In the last decade, cultural transmission experiments (transmission chains, replacement, closed groups and seeded groups) have become important experimental tools in investigating cultural evolution. However, these methods face important challenges, especially regarding the operationalization of theoretical claims. In this review, we focus on the study of cumulative cultural evolution, the process by which traditions are gradually modified and, for technological traditions in particular, improved upon over time.

Time-Trial Performance in World-Class Speed Skaters After Chronic Nitrate Ingestion.

Purpose: Nitrate supplementation can increase tolerance to high-intensity work rates; however, limited data exist on the recovery of performance. The authors tested whether 5 d of nitrate supplementation could improve repeated time-trial performance in speed skating.

Methods: Using a double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover design, 9 international-level short-track speed skaters ingested 1 high (juice blend, ∼6.

The cognitive life of mechanical molecular models.

The use of physical models of molecular structures as research tools has been central to the development of biochemistry and molecular biology. Intriguingly, it has received little attention from scholars of science. In this paper, I argue that these physical models are not mere three-dimensional representations but that they are in fact very special research tools: they are cognitive augmentations.

Benzimidazolium-based synthetic chloride and calcium transporters in bacterial membranes.

Herein, we present the first example of a benzimidazolium-based artificial transmembrane chloride transporter and a synthetic calcium ionophore that can regulate intracellular calcium concentrations in bacteria.

Inter-segmental coordination: motor pattern in humans stepping over an obstacle with mechanical ankle joint friction.

This study examined the influence of a mechanical perturbation of the ankle joint on obstacle avoidance pattern. A decoupled control between the distal joint and the combined (hip-knee) proximal joints was observed according to the task requirement. In this context, a greater mechanical friction at the ankle should be compensated at this joint (local compensation) or alternatively, by regulating more combined proximal joints (knee and/or hip).